Halos friends,
I recently attended the Africa Engagement Forum (AEF) and Africa DNS Forum 2025 events, and I need to share something that’s been sitting heavy on my heart (in a good way), the kind that pushes you to act.
How I Got There
Just before ICANN84 AGM, the Africa regional global stakeholder engagement (GSE) team reached out to us serving African ALAC members that they needed an ALAC representative to give the community report during the AEF in December. When my colleagues nominated me to represent us at the event, I was truly honored. It felt like both a privilege and a responsibility – one I don’t take lightly.
The Weight of History
AEF 2025 was organized by ICANN and hosted by the Association of African Universities (AAU) as a hybrid event, with the theme “Developing a more active community in Africa.” The focus was clear: regional priorities, ICANN updates, and community perspectives. But one of the things that stuck with me happened during the opening session.
Catherine Adeya, one of the ICANN Board members (African) during her opening speech, took us down memory lane, and honestly, I got goosebumps. The venue we were sitting in – MÖVENPICK, Ambassador Hotel Accra – holds profound historical significance. It is the same venue on the same grounds (though the structure has since been rebuilt) where the first All-African Peoples Conference was held in 1958. That conference then was a pivotal moment for anti-colonialism and African unity.
Think about that for a second. Sixty-seven years ago, our ancestors gathered in that very space to chart a path toward freedom and unity. And here we were, their descendants, gathered again to discuss another form of liberation, digital sovereignty and active African participation in the global Internet governance space.
The symbolism wasn’t lost on any of us. The major takeaway from that opening? Keep Africa’s unity and build technical capacity. History was speaking to us.
The African Wake-Up Call
During the ICANN community report – the very session I was honored to be part of – something dawned on me. I looked at my fellow panelists and realized we were all Nigerian, each representing different communities within ICANN: ALAC, ccNSO, BC, RSSAC, and NPOC (of course the moderator was an Egyptian).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my Nigerian siblings showing up and representing. But it got me thinking: where is the rest of Africa?
This isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s about us realizing we have work to do. Real work. Our continent is vast, diverse, and brilliant, yet we’re not showing up in these spaces the way we should. We can’t afford to just be aware of ICANN anymore; we need to be actively engaged. That’s exactly why the theme “Developing a more active community in Africa” couldn’t have been more appropriate.
What I Learned at AEF 2025
The conversations were rich. We heard updates on Africa’s domain name space and the upcoming round of new gTLDs, both the challenges ahead and the incredible opportunities waiting for us. The Coalition for Digital Africa shared their progress, and we celebrated the partnerships that are moving our continent forward, both those physically present and those who joined us remotely.
Our VP of Stakeholder Engagement for Africa, delivered the Africa Engagement report, and let me tell you, it was eye-opening on what the GSE team is doing within the region. Remember I said earlier that our ICANN Board member from Africa, Catherine Adeya was in the room, and her message was clear: we need to come together and work together as a team. Not as individual countries competing, but as a continent ready to break through the barriers that have held us back for too long. It was like the ancestors were speaking through them, reminding us that the fight for self-determination didn’t end with political independence – it continues in the digital age. She concluded with this African proverb: “Cross the river in a crowd, and the crocodile will not eat you.”
The DNS Forum: Prof Nii’s Truth Bomb
Now, the DNS Forum – this is where things got real for me. Yes, there was plenty of talk about the economic benefits of country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) and why we should patronize our local registries. That’s important, no doubt.
But Prof Nii Quaynor – the Father of the Internet in Africa, said something that stuck with me, probably because of my technical background. He reminded us that we can’t just emphasise on the economic benefits of our ccTLDs, or advocate for governments to build infrastructure and registries if we don’t have the technical capacity to manage them ourselves.
Let that sink in for a moment.
We’re talking about digital sovereignty, about controlling our own Internet destiny, about not being totally dependent on others. But if we don’t train our people, if we don’t build that technical knowledge base right here at home, we’re just setting ourselves up to outsource everything again. We’d be trading one form of dependency for another. Prof Nii called it like it is – we can’t afford to “enslave ourselves over again due to lack of capacity.” Are we about to invite digital colonialism through the back door because we didn’t invest in our own people?
That hit different.
What Governments Need to Do (And What We Need to Push For)
There was also a strong call for our governments and policymakers to step up. We need laws and incentives that encourage – or even mandate the use of ccTLDs in government institutions, ministries, and parastatals. But it can’t stop there. We need to make it attractive and practical for everyday citizens and businesses to use them too.
So, What Now? Here’s My Advice to Fellow Africans
- Get involved in ICANN communities today, not tomorrow.
Whether it’s ALAC/AtLarge (where I serve), ccNSO, NCSG, BC, or any other Supporting Organization or Advisory Committee, there’s a place for you. We need voices from Cameroon, Cape Verde, Ghana, South Africa, Rwanda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mali, Botswana – everywhere. Your perspective matters. Your country’s digital future matters. - Build technical capacity like your life depends on it – because it does.
If you’re technical, dive deeper. If you’re not, encourage young people in your life to pursue careers in network engineering, DNS management, cybersecurity, and Internet governance. We need to own the infrastructure we’re building, not just use it. This is the modern-day equivalent of what our ancestors fought for – self-determination and the ability to chart our own course. - Support local registries and ccTLDs.
Use .ng, .ke, .za, .gh, .cv, .cn – whatever your country code is. Encourage businesses to register locally. Let’s put our money where our values are. Every time we choose a local domain, we’re investing in African digital infrastructure. - Hold governments accountable.
Push for policies that support local domain use and Internet infrastructure development. Engage with policymakers. They need to hear from us, the people who understand what’s at stake. We need legislation that makes sense, incentives that work, and leaders who see the vision. - Mentor and bring others along.
Don’t gatekeep knowledge. If you’ve learned something about ICANN, Internet governance, or technical infrastructure management, teach someone else. Let’s multiply our impact. Remember, our strength is in our unity – that was true in 1958, and it’s true now. - Remember where we come from.
We stand on the shoulders of giants who fought for our political independence. Now it’s our turn to secure our digital independence. We owe it to them, and we owe it to the generations coming after us.
The Bottom Line
Friends, we’re at a crossroads. The Internet is not just a tool; it’s the foundation of our economic future, our education systems, our healthcare delivery, and our participation in the global community. We can either be architects of our digital future or tenants in someone else’s building.
The choice is ours.
Being at AEF 2025, representing ALAC, standing in a space heavy with the weight of African history and possibility – it reminded me that this work is bigger than any one person or country. It’s about the collective destiny of our continent. Those who gathered in 1958 didn’t have all the answers, but they had courage and unity. We need that same spirit now.
The opportunities are there. ICANN has fellowship programs, capacity-building initiatives, and remote participation options. You don’t need to travel to every meeting – though I encourage it when possible. You just need to show up, speak up, serve with excellence, and commit to learning and contributing. And when you see gaps, fill them.
Let’s not wait for another forum to have this conversation. Let’s not look at another panel and wonder where the rest of Africa is. Let’s be the answer to that question.
Are you in? Drop it in the comments below.
Want to learn more about getting involved in ICANN? To join the mailing lists, or attend a capacity-building webinar? The door is open, we just need to walk through it. Let’s honor our ancestors by securing our digital future.
